After 13 years I have finally watched a "war" movie.

No, I didn't watch one of those action packed comedies where one character defeats an entire brigade, or two, or even three!
No, it wasn't one of those "Hollywood" specials, it was a movie about a man, his life, his dilemmas, his inner conflicts, knowing what he was doing was right, yet his hatred for war growing with every day he spent in war.

The movie is called "Sniper" it was directed by none other than one of the all time legends Clint Eastwood.

At the very beginning of the movie I was ready to switch the program/channel to see what else was on the TV, then all of a sudden the scene jumps from a war scene to a scene where a boy and his dad are out hunting and the boy shoots a deer and is praised by his father.

So I decided to watch the movie to see where it all leads to.

As the movie went on, I saw a scene that took me back in time, where a young man and his partner are watching the twin towers go down in flames, although in the movie it shows one of the towers going down and then the reactions of this young couple. This was maybe the only indirect mention of why it ever came to a war in Iraq, which was originally a continuation of the war in Afghanistan. Although, this is how some have seen this scene, what I saw was a personal reaction, anger, fear, disbelief, shock in the young couples reaction as they hug each other.

So the young man makes his decision to join the military, a person who disliked water joined the Navy SEALS, the training, the willpower not to give up and the determination to go out and do the best that he can in the hope to ensure nothing like the Twin Towers ever happens again.

Saving lives by taking lives, that is the job of a sniper. Simple as that. No two ways about it, any and all detailed definitions of this job all just go into all the details that are summarized in this sentence I just gave here.

So I kept on watching the movie, I didn't notice any hundreds of US flags, except for one or two during the movie and then in the funeral procession at the end of the movie. Just a little thing I noticed, or maybe failed to notice, as I was concentrating on the main character in the movie, his feelings, his dilemmas, his emotions and so on, so much so that I actually ignored some of the Hollywood within the movie.

I'm going to jump around a little here, as did Clint Eastwood in the movie, because I cannot explain what all I wish to say about the movie by just going through it scene by scene and talking about "a movie". My post here is not just about "a movie" it is about what I saw in the movie and why I managed to watch it all the way to the end.

A young man, brought up in a family that was simple in its ways, christian morals with what was back many years considered to be a normal and acceptable level of strictness in the family. Where the mother was the mother and the father was "the law" in the household. Now that to many may seem a little extreme in todays day and age, but the fact is that is how it was once upon a time in many house holds.

One of the scenes got me, got me bad, it was a scene where a pet dog was playing with one of the children while this man was home on R&R, and when he saw that the dog was apparently going to hurt the child he ripped out his belt, just like his strict dad did and he wanted to give the dog a good old belting. He didn't, only because his wife called his name out. The movie didn't show any scenes of the dog playing like this with the kids, which in fact depicted the fact that the main character had never seen this before, as he was deployed to the theater in Iraq and wasn't home. It also showed how his wifes voice was probably the only voice he could hear when in the heat of the moment. In many a scene he calls her on the good old sat phone, which was the only form of comms that were out there back in 2003 and a good chunk of 2004. In every one of his calls he wants to hear her voice, a way to get back to reality, to make some sense out of all the things that are going around him.

One of the lines in the movie which I knew, even though I had never watched it before was ".....despicable evil. That's what we were fighting in Iraq......" and if memory serves me right, something along the lines of what I have said many a time, "....that’s evil like I've never seen before....."

There is an entire act in the movie in which the spooks (DIA / CIA) arrange for a payment to be made to one of the locals in Iraq for information. This was the one and only scene where "civilian" contractors were involved. No matter how short this entire act and relevant scenes may have been, it depicted the truth about how "civilian" contractors were often used for things that The Government could not even "touch". The line that I laughed at was "....the bag is to be handled by a civilian contractor....." referring to the bag with the money. I mean, how much more graphic does it get in defining the roles of various "civilian" contractors in theater. Where The Government can't afford to get "involved" send out the "civilian contractors", LOVE IT!
Finally a movie in which "civilian contractors" are mentioned!

I couldn't believe it, and the best part of all, it said it all, in a few sentences and seconds of scenes, just telling it all as it was without all the Hollywood BS, maybe a little dramatization, but not really all that much when I think about it, because the movie squeezed in an entire lifetime of one man into one movie!

I don't care what anyone thinks but I can't see myself depicting a persons entire life in a movie, damn I can't even convey what all of the little things about the movie actually got me watching it all the way to the end, but here I am, "x" words later still trying to find the words to describe all the emotions.

When I really get down to the little things in the movie that got me watching it and not flicking the channel it was the "one liners" as the blokes spoke among themselves.

I guess that kept me in the movie and then later on the things that went on at home, the fact that he felt exiled in his own home, only a change in scenery and after talking with others did he get to a stage where he could move on with his life.

The ending was sad, I didn't expect it, like I said, I don't watch or read about "war" movies. The ones i watched in my youth are the ones I watched and now I guess this movie too. Although this movie is about a man, not a war. About what a war does to a man and not what a man does in a war.

I think I will end this post here, those who can understand what I am saying understood it, to those who didn't i apologize, never was much of a writer.

Thanks for reading and the next time you watch this movie I hope some of my words here, the things I saw in this movie may be things you see too, especially the part about the "civilian" contractors, that is rare out there no one mentions these guys (at least as far as I noticed), yet you would be surprised at just how many there are out there and what all their responsibilities and duties may involve. Many a time things that could never be predicted in and job contract or scope of work, yet the job has to get done, one way or another.

PS. Everyone is green out there, that is a US Marines motto, something endorsed throughout this movie and everyone is just a human being, another thing that is endorsed in this movie. Had to add this little piece of info here, otherwise this post wouldn't be complete.